Yesterday was the conclusion of the re-running of the Austrian Presidential run-off between Independent candidate (and former Green Party leader) Alexander Van der Bellen, and Norbert Hofer of the far-right Freedom Party.

The run-off was originally held in May and the result was extremely close with Van der Bellen winning by just 0.7 percent. But then, in June, the result was annulled after allegations of voting irregularities. Yesterday was the re-run, with opinion polls prior to polling day suggesting that the result would be similarly close, with the far-right Hofer narrowly leading in much of the polling. This led to Nigel Farage boldly predicting that Hofer would be the next populist right-winger to win a major election.

However, ultimately this was wrong, with Van der Bellen winning, and by a considerably wider margin than his win in the original election in May. Although all of the votes are yet to be counted, projections suggest that Van der Bellen has won by roughly 53 percent to 46 percent, and Hofer has conceded defeat.

Many moderates were quick to rejoice, heralding the result as a ray of light in a year which has seen a vote for Brexit in the EU Referendum, the election of Donald Trump ahead of Hillary Clinton, the defeat of Matteo Renzi in Italy, and the continued rise of Marine Le Pen in France. However, this analysis glosses over the results somewhat.

Hofer is a genuine far-right politician. He has stated that Islam has ‘no place in Austria’, and has regularly referred to Islam and immigration as being an existential threat to Austrian identity. Hofer has also been strongly criticised by some for wearing the blue cornflower, which is an old Nazi symbol, which is often used to represent ideas of pan-Germanism. In addition, Hofer has long been a gun enthusiast, and has described carrying a gun as a ‘natural consequence’ of immigration. Despite pitching himself as a moderate outside member of the Freedom Party, Hofer has in fact worked his way up through the party’s ranks for many years, and was a close advisor to previous leaders who were even more overtly extreme.

Although Hofer lost, he received 46 percent of the vote. In 2000, Jean-Marie Le Pen (father of Marine) received 18 percent of the vote in the French Presidential Election, and this was considered to be as popular as the far-right could get in Europe. However, now a far-right candidate has managed 46% of the vote, with Hofer’s share much, much higher in the countryside and the smaller towns — in much the same way as Donald Trump’s was during the US Presidential Election, although Hofer makes Trump look like a moderate.

Hofer’s loss is certainly pleasing for moderates in some regard. A Hofer win would have embolden far-right candidates throughout over European countries. The likes of Geert Wilders and the Dutch Party of Freedom, Matteo Salvini and the Italian Northern League, Frauke Petry and the Alternative for Germany, and Marine Le Pen and the National Front. Hofer’s loss will hopefully have stunted the momentum of these parties.

However, the fact that a far-right party managed to poll 46 percent in a European Presidential election should not be ignored. It should serve to further highlight to deep disconnect that many voters in Europe (and around the world) feel with the political establishment, and the establishment should be working overtime in order to correct this, before it’s too late.

It is under the banner of ‘En Marche!’ that he will run for the Presidency, although he is effectively running as an independent, given that he lacks the party machine which the candidates from the major parties will enjoy. Given the dire record of independent and third-party candidates in French Presidential Elections, one would be forgiven for thinking that Macron doesn’t stand a chance of winning the Presidency. However, although it will undoubtedly be difficult for Macron, he certainly has a fairly decent chance in the upcoming election.

Macron in his previous role as Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs.

Currently leading in the polls is Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front, with polling overwhelmingly suggesting that she will finish top in the first round of voting scheduled to be held on 23 April 2017. However, commentators have typically predicted that Le Pen will be defeated in the second round of voting, due to be held on 7 May.

Traditionally, French voters have a strong record of coming together to defeat extremist candidates for the Presidency. In 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen (father of Marine) was the candidate for the National Front and advanced to the second round along with Jacques Chirac, the candidate for the UMP (the precursor of Les Republicains). In the second round of voting, the anti-Le Pen vote came together to give Chirac 82.2 percent of the votes and with it a huge victory. Many observers expect a similar situation to arise this time, although opinion is almost unanimous that the margin of victory for the consensus candidate will be far lower than in 2002, and that given the worldwide trend toward right-wing populist political candidates that it would be extremely unwise to completely rule out the possibility of Marine Le Pen winning the Presidency. However, the high likelihood of Le Pen’s opponent in the second round winning the Presidency means that, in theory, all Macron needs to do is win enough votes in the first round to advance into the second round.

One thing that could potentially make this easier is the fact that Francois Fillon has emerged as the likely winner of the presidential nomination for the Republicans. Previously, the overwhelming favourite to win was current Mayor of Bordeaux Alain Juppe who is considered a centrist. Given that Macron is also marketing himself as a centrist candidate in the election, Juppe as the Republican candidate could have made it very difficult for Macron to make any headway. The polls reflect this. So far in the Presidential race, and including the polls conducted before he announced his candidacy, Macron has been polling between 12 and 25 percent. Typically, his lower numbers have come when the pollsters have listed Alain Juppe as the Republican nominee. However, in polling which has listed Nicolas Sarkozy or Francois Fillon as the Republican nominee, Macron has tended to score considerably higher. Therefore, the emergence of Fillon as the likely Republican nominee could be of huge benefit to Macron. If Macron is able to hoover up some of the voters who would have backed Juppe in the first round of voting, then he would stand a pretty strong chance of getting enough support to advance to the second round. As I explained previously, this would give him a very good chance of winning the Presidency.

The other variable to consider is whether incumbent President Francois Hollande will run for a second term. It has been reported that many of the President’s confidantes have advised him against seeking a second term given that his exceedingly high unpopularity would likely render the result a foregone conclusion — Hollande’s approval rating recently dropped to an historic low of just four percent. Macron was a key advisor on the Hollande Presidential campaign in 2012, and although he has been accused by Alain Juppe, among others, of ‘stabbing Hollande in the back’, he remains somewhat associated with the Hollande Presidency. This relationship is reflected in the polling with Macron scoring higher ratings when current Prime Minister Manuel Valls is listed as the Socialist Party nominee rather than Hollande — suggesting that Macron would be able to bring Hollande backers into his camp as well as Juppe backers. This coalition of centre-left, centrist, and centre-right supporters would stand him in good stead, and it is currently looking as though Macron’s insistence that his movement ‘En Marche!’ should not outwardly subscribe to any particular political ideology is looking like a rather shrewd decision. Macron’s own experience allows him to successfully straddle these ideologies. His previous membership of the Socialist Party has won him the backing of some centre-left voters plus the endorsement of Socialist Party members such as the Mayor of Lyon, Gerard Collomb. In addition, his experience as a banker with Rothschild, and as Economy Minister means that he also has strong connections in various highly influential business networks, although this has led to him being dismissed by Marine Le Pen as ‘the candidate of the bankers’.

What it does mean is that he has the ability to court voters who would usually go with the establishment candidate, whilst his independence from any political party and the fact that he has never before held elected office before means that he can also attempt to gain some of the voters who are keen for an anti-establishment candidate, which his speech announcing his run for the Presidency reflected.

During his speech announcing his candidacy Macron described France as being ‘blocked by corporatism of all kinds’ and unequivocally stated, ‘I reject this system!’ Although Macron is an avowedly centrist candidate, this imagery of a political system which faces gridlock as a result of corporate interests is also one which was readily used by the Leave side during the EU Referendum, and by Donald Trump’s campaign for the Presidency, and although Macron is clearly not a populist in the mould of these campaign’s, he has certainly seen what works around the world and is attempting to use it to his advantage. Macron was also keen to stress that rather than advocating positions on the right or left, his En Marche! movement advocated ‘new ideas’, and therefore he has immediately looked to mark himself out as the ‘change’ candidate, something which has also proved extremely successful in recent elections worldwide. Indeed, exit polling following the US Presidential Election suggested that although many of Donald Trump’s actual policies didn’t find favour with the electorate, many voters backed him because they felt that he could bring about change in Washington D.C. that no other candidate, principally Hillary Clinton, could. By casting himself as the ‘change’ candidate, Macron clearly hopes to tap into the desire of voters to shake up the political system, and whilst similar to the Trump campaign for change, there are also uncanny similarities to Tony Blair’s campaign in 1997 when he was Leader of the Opposition and then became Prime Minister. It is no surprise that some have described Macron as being ‘more Blair than Blair’, with the likeness perhaps coming more from a seeming willingness to do whatever it takes to win as opposed to his centrism.

Although there is evidence that Macron is winning voters who backed Hollande in 2012, there has also been anger in the Socialist Party at his candidacy, with some senior members suggesting that all he would do would be to split the left and allow the far-right to take hold. Jean-Christophe Cambedelis, who as First Secretary of the Socialist Party is effectively the party leader, described Macron’s decision to run as “very annoying”, before lamenting that his candidacy would split the Socialist Party’s vote and make it almost impossible for a centre-left candidate to reach the run-off. However, with the Socialist Party so unpopular on the back of Francois Hollande’s stint as President, surely the likelihood of a Socialist Party candidate reaching the final two was slim at best even before Macron announced his decision to run? Indeed, it seems fair to say that Macron’s candidacy makes it more likely that we will see a centre-left candidate in the final two, given that he has the ability to draw the support of centrists and some on the centre-right. Back in August Macron was polled as being the second most popular politician in all of France, after only Alain Juppe. With Juppe unlikely to play much more of a part in this Presidential Race, out of the remaining candidates it will likely be Macron who is the most popular in the eyes of the voting public. Surely, on these grounds, he is a far better person to be carrying the standard for the centre and centre-left than someone like Hollande or Valls? The fact that Le Pen and Juppe went on the attack almost immediately after Macron’s announcement suggests that they too recognise his eminent electability.

Whilst it is undeniable that Macron’s road to the Presidency will be an extremely difficult one, it is a journey which is by no means impossible. All Macron needs to do is finish second in the first round of the voting and with it progress to the run-off vote where he would have a good chance of defeating Le Pen. Although it is hard to dispute that Francois Fillon remains the favourite for now, with more than six months still to go it would be foolish to rule Macron out just yet. Stranger things have certainly happened.

Yesterday the French centre-right party ‘Les Republicains’ held the first round of their Presidential Primary to choose their candidate for the Presidential election which will be held in April and May next year.

The winner on the day was Francois Fillon who served as Prime Minister between 2007 and 2012 garnered 44 percent of the vote and advances to the second round next Sunday along with Alain Juppe who served as Prime Minister between 1995 and 1997 and is the current Mayor of Bordeaux, and who received 28 percent of the vote. One name conspicuously absent from the the run-off vote next Sunday will be Nicolas Sarkozy with the former President crashing out after receiving just 20.6 percent of the vote.

Francois Fillon.

This was a huge turnaround, with Fillon’s victory adding to the growing trend this year of political events which have confounded the pollsters. In the final days of the primary campaign it had become clear that Fillon was gaining some steam but polling still suggested that he would finish in third place behind Juppe and Sarkozy, indeed just days before the primary election Fillon was polled as having just 20 percent support but he wound up receiving 44 percent of the vote. This means that Fillon is now the overwhelming favourite to be the Republican nominee for the Presidency, and in many people’s eyes the overwhelming favourite to succeed Francois Hollande as the President of France.

Fillon wrapping up the Republican nomination was made even more likely when Nicolas Sarkozy conceded defeat and threw his support behind the man who served as Prime Minister over the course of his Presidency. Although Fillon is a more natural home for Sarkozy’s supporters than the centrist Alain Juppe, that Sarkozy chose to endorse Fillon so unequivocally was perhaps somewhat of a surprise. It was of course Sarkozy who spent the duration of his Presidency referring to Fillon as ‘Mr Nobody’, and political ideology aside there have never been much sign of common ground between the pair. In any case, Sarkozy’s endorsement means that it is now vanishingly unlikely that Fillon will fail to wrap up the nomination on Sunday, with most observers suggesting that this means that he is almost guaranteed to be the next President of France.

After confounding the pollsters, Fillon is now the favourite to be the next President.

This is because currently topping the polls is Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front. With incumbent President Francois Hollande widely disliked (his approval rating has fallen to four percent, and we saw yesterday with Sarkozy what happens when you have such a low national approval rating) it seems highly unlikely that Hollande or anyone else from his Socialist Party will be able to make much headway in the upcoming Presidential Election. Therefore, there the likeliest outcome seems to be that the two candidates who make the Presidential run-off will be Marine Le Pen, and whoever wins the Republican nomination. Of course, there is the added possibility of centrist independent candidate Emmanuel Macron to consider, but it will be a while yet before we will be able to see whether his campaign has any legs. But, the assumption is that Le Pen will top the vote in the second round, but that whoever joins her in the second round is far more likely to become President. This is because France has a proud recent history of banding together to prevent extremist candidates ascending to the Presidency.

In the 2002 Presidential Election, the two candidates to make it to the second round were Jacques Chirac of the UMP (now know as the Republicans) and Jean-Marie Le Pen (father of Marine) of the National Front. In the first round Chirac had received just 19.88 percent of the vote but in the second round voters banded together to prevent Le Pen winning and Chirac received a huge 82.21 percent of the vote. Many in France from the left to the centre-right are hoping for the same outcome this time around.

However, the common consensus was that Alain Juppe would be the best person to be a consensus candidate in the mould of Chirac who would be best placed to defeat Marine Le Pen in the second round. However, with Juppe so far behind Fillon in the first round of primary voting, it is now looking increasingly unlikely that he will be able to win the Republican nomination. The day before the primary vote, many people got rather worried by a poll that seemed to suggest that Marine Le Pen was likely to triumph in the second round of the Presidential Election. However, this was simply one of the scenarios tested by the pollsters, in it Le Pen faced off against Sarkozy as was found to win narrowly. Juppe, on the other hand, was found to beat Le Pen by between seven and nine points. Given that Fillon’s policy platform is far, far close to Sarkozy’s than it is to Juppe’s (like Sarkozy Fillon is a bona fide right-winger), then it stands that Fillon has significantly less chance than Juppe of beating Le Pen in the second round of the Presidential Election. Despite this, Fillon looks set to win the nomination on Sunday.

Alain Juppe, who can second in the first round of primary voting, looks the best bet to defeat Marine Le Pen. However, Fillon looks set to beat him to the nomination.

Of course, given how most political predictions have turned out this year, we cannot take anything for granted, but it seems safe to say that if Francois Fillon is selected as the Republican nominee on Sunday, then Marine Le Pen would be quite a bit closer to the Presidency than she is today.